Scientists sharing research and working with literary and visual storytellers can help spread knowledge to build a better future. That’s the theme of an event taking place in Fitzrovia in June.
Social science-fiction writer Stephen Oram has been working alongside scientists as part of a project with King’s College London. “They do the science and I do the fiction,” says Oram who will be reading from his recent book Biohacked & Begging.
Two of the scientists, Claire Steves and Danbee Kim, will be joining Oram to discuss how sharing ideas, and textual and visual storytelling, can help a wider audience not only better understand science but also help perpetuate scientific research to benefit humanity.
“Openness and lack of secrecy in research reduces the chance that good ideas are only exploitable by private entities,” says Steves who is a deputy director (Clinical) for TwinsUK, and a consultant geriatrician at Guys and St Thomas’s NHS Foundation Trust as well as a Clinical Senior Lecturer at King’s College London.
Danbee Kim will be talking about her collaboration with 17 artists to create The First VIRS (Vigilante Intergalactic Roustabout Scholar) — a hard science fiction graphic novel that combines her neuroscience PhD research with a speculation on how the next 100 years might play out.
“I’m communicating my research through a graphic novel because I want to make science and technology topics more accessible to EVERYONE, from young people (and any other science-curious, comic-loving human!) to experts in other specialities,” says Kim who will be launching the novel at the event.
The three presenters will give their perspectives on open science and storytelling and there will be a question and answer session with the audience.
Share Ideas | Share Research | Share the Future, 6:30 PM – 9:30 PM, Monday, 3 June 2019 at Sainsbury Wellcome Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour, 25 Howland Street, London W1T 4AY. You can book your tickets here (it’s free, but you need to book) https://www.eventbrite.com/e/share-the-future-tickets-59570320432